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Tuesday, 24 Jul 07
THE ATHLETE/COACH DUO of Jen Hudak and Elana Chase has been together for seven years, and the team is on a mission casually called “Project Hudak.” Chase coaches for Aspen Valley Ski Club, and was a member of the U.S. Freestyle Development Team for 3 years competing in Moguls and Aerials. She is fun and funny. Elana will out wit you with her comedy, but can get serious at any moment if her “kids,” like Hudak, need help. Hudak, 20, who won the halfpipe X Games bronze medal last season, is not only one of the top girls competing in freeride, but most might not know that she is a smart one, too, taking after her family. (Her dad is a prof at Yale, mom got a 1580 on SATs, and sister is getting masters in clinical psychology.) She loves dragon flies because they represent transformation (a process she has gone through), but maybe most importantly, both women are as nice as can be. The two, who are often seen training at the Utah Olympic Park splash pool in Hudak’s Park City backyard, just took off to spend the next two months training and competing in New Zealand to work on Project Hudak. — Vanessa Pierce
SheJumps: How did you and Elana meet?
Jen Hudak: I was a sophomore in high school at Okemo Mountain School, and I had been on their ski team for I guess it had been my forth year at that point and we had this new coach. The freestyle team was sitting in our cafeteria area. There were six kids around this table and this one kid said, “Oh, I hear our coach is a hot blonde chick,” so naturally I felt threatened already. I was 15, and so we’re all waiting for this coach to show up. She showed up late, car trouble I think.
Elana Chase: No. Absolutely not, Wendy Neal [head of school] did not tell me the right time to be there. (Note: they bicker like best friends about what really happened.)
SJ: Was it love at first site?
Jen: Elana just wanted to motivate us to work hard, but it wasn’t love at first sight. You said this before [turning to Elana], you never picked favorites. It was just until I proved that I was going to work hard and was willing to commit myself to this that you put more time and effort into Project Hudak.
Elana: We also spent more time together because of the fact that you were willing to put more time in. …Therefore, by the end of the season you qualified for all the major competitions.
SJ: How long have you been together?
Jen and Elana in sing-song unison: We’ve being together for seven years.
Jen: And nothing to show for it?
Elana: What?
Jen: Just kidding, just kidding. Like no baby or anything. We have a bronze medal from X Games to show for it!
SJ: Both of you spend a lot of time at the Utah Olympic Park splash pool. How has it helped you improve?
Jen: The more time you spend in the air, the more time you spend spinning, it just helps you have a better awareness of where you are in the air, which is basically the most important thing. If you know where you are it doesn’t matter if you are doing a 9 or a 10 or over rotating a 5 or 7 or 9, if you know where you are, you will be able to land. There is not much landing involved with water ramping considering you are landing in water, but getting that feeling and trying to figure out where you are at all times … it’s kind of like a big experiment the whole time.
Elana: Air awareness is the biggest thing, so you can try all different ways to speed up slow down, spin and fix them if they are not going right.
SJ: What is your biggest accomplishment, either in skiing or outside of skiing?
Jen: Overall my biggest accomplishment is that I’m actually still skiing to be honest. My first year out of high school, when I moved out to Utah for summer 2004 and lived in Aspen with Elana for the winter of 2005, I was in the hospital on average once a week. The total tally at the end was seven sets of x-rays, three MRIs, a cat scan and a life flight – in one season. I broke my thumb, I did something funny to my wrist, I had bone contusions at the end of my tibia and femur in my right knee and at the end of my tibia on my left knee, I partially tore my ACL, tore cartilage and meniscus on my right knee, broke my nose, tore the cartilage that holds my lungs together, separated my shoulder, bruised my rotator cuff, and probably had a concussion somewhere in there too.
Elana: And lost all vital signs, and that’s why they life flighted you, which was the kicker.
SJ: What made you want to come back to the sport after that?
Jen: Well I felt like I had a lot of unfinished business. … It’s just isn’t in my character to go half way, which is kind of the reason that I got hurt so much. I didn’t know how to limit myself. I didn’t really know boundaries. I came back because I love to ski, I love to compete, I love half pipe. I love being in the air. I just knew I needed to take a year super mellow and pull myself back a lot. That next year after that was probably harder for me more than the year I got hurt so much. I had to suck up my ego. … [Elana] was supportive. My struggles are her struggles in a way, and my successes are her successes. It’s very much a partnership. She doesn’t like to see me get hurt but at the same time she wants to see me push myself and keep improving.
Elana: You have to calculate a risk. You just don’t go take a risk with somebody else’s skill level or life, but you try to build up to it, a progression. You try to set them up for success and not for failure. You have to accept what you have and let the person push them self to the next level. The skill level that Jen has is tremendously high and she has a tremendously high athletic ability. …. She wants to stay on the top of the game of freeride, so she will have to constantly push herself to stay on the top. From that injuries can occur, and you just try to balance when the right day is and when they are on. … It is a balancing act because you are dealing with someone else’s life, not jus your own. It’s going to hurt them more than me when they crash, and so I take that as a tremendous responsibility.
SJ: What are your goals for this upcoming season?
Jen: I want to do 9s and 10s in the pipe. … I’m one for amplitude, I’m one for style. I don’t like spinning for the sake of spinning. If I’m going to do a 9 in a competition, I’m going to do a 9 out of the pipe and one that looks good and preferably one that’s grabbed. I’m a snot. I am, I’m a snot. I think style is so important. I think there are a lot of people that are skilled, and really where the line gets drawn is in regards to style. And the other thing is that I don’t feel rushed. I felt rushed for a while, and it’s really easy to feel pressure from other people to do things. And they don’t mean anything by it. In some ways is supportive and a compliment that they want you to do this stuff because they think you can do it. But you have to know when you are ready to do something and that’s what I learned from getting some many injuries.. You just need to feel it and go with it. I have so much time to do what I want to do. I don’t feel pressured. I want to start doing more slopestyle stuff, I don’t necessarily want to compete in slopestyle but I definitely want to do more of it because people think I can.
Elana: I’m her number one fan. As you all know I run the fan club, the website, the photo albums, I drive the bus, I wrap the ankles, make the knee braces, no I’m just kidding. [Laughs from everyone]. I just think the future is what Jen wants it to be as far as just believing in herself because the skill level is that of anybody else’s or beyond anybody else’s. Her conceptual understanding of looking and twisting compared to any other girls in the sport I think exceeds them, and she has a good natural air sense. So just combing that with self confidence means she could win anything she wants.
SJ: Jen, what have you learned from Elana?
Jen: I’ve learned many life skills from Elana.
Elana: Not cooking.
Jen: No not cooking. I’ve learned how to get out of speeding tickets.
Elana: You learn how to be nice to people without expecting anything and then you end of up getting something in the end. … I’m just nice and I don’t get a ticket.
Jen: I’ve learned a lot from Elana, just from hearing her past stories.
Elana: There is love here.
Jen: We’re a lot alike, too.
SJ: What are your pet peeves?
Jen: I don’t like when people don’t put my silverware in the drawer properly.
Elana: Jen is a little bit …
Jen: … I’m a little OCD. I work at Wild Oats. I’m the front of store supervisor. I have compulsions with certain things like bagging people’s groceries. And if somebody bags somebody’s groceries and I come over to help them finish, and it’s bad, I have to re-bag and re-do it and reorganize it. I’m like really really anal. Everything is stacked perfectly. Oh, it’s intense. Sometimes I turn red because I have to re-bag someone’s groceries and they want to leave and I am so slow because I forget that I have to bag their groceries. It’s literally a compulsion.
SJ: Does OCD carry over to skiing?
Elana: It makes her a little bit stubborn at times. Not in a bad way, but she’s determined to get certain things. … So sometimes it can lead to frustration, which can impede progress. Eventually we get there. It never stops her from the goal. The OCD can make her succeed.
SJ: What will you be doing in New Zealand in August/September?
Jen: Ski a lot. I might never come back from New Zealand, except for when it’s winter here.
Elana: Training in the summer should just be a more relaxed environment so you can learn without pressure. This trip just happens to have two competitions at the end, so sometimes I think that’s good because you have something to work towards. You have a goal in the end. It kind of keeps you focused so you don’t waste your days just skiing around. … I think we’re going to find a balance down there.
Profile: Jen Hudak and Elana Chase
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THE ATHLETE/COACH DUO of Jen Hudak and Elana Chase has been together for seven years, and the team is on a mission casually called “Project Hudak.” Chase coaches for Aspen Valley Ski Club, and was a member of the U.S. Freestyle Development Team for 3 years competing in Moguls and Aerials. She is fun and funny. Elana will out wit you with her comedy, but can get serious at any moment if her “kids,” like Hudak, need help. Hudak, 20, who won the halfpipe X Games bronze medal last season, is not only one of the top girls competing in freeride, but most might not know that she is a smart one, too, taking after her family. (Her dad is a prof at Yale, mom got a 1580 on SATs, and sister is getting masters in clinical psychology.) She loves dragon flies because they represent transformation (a process she has gone through), but maybe most importantly, both women are as nice as can be. The two, who are often seen training at the Utah Olympic Park splash pool in Hudak’s Park City backyard, just took off to spend the next two months training and competing in New Zealand to work on Project Hudak. — Vanessa Pierce
SheJumps: How did you and Elana meet?
Jen Hudak: I was a sophomore in high school at Okemo Mountain School, and I had been on their ski team for I guess it had been my forth year at that point and we had this new coach. The freestyle team was sitting in our cafeteria area. There were six kids around this table and this one kid said, “Oh, I hear our coach is a hot blonde chick,” so naturally I felt threatened already. I was 15, and so we’re all waiting for this coach to show up. She showed up late, car trouble I think.
Elana Chase: No. Absolutely not, Wendy Neal [head of school] did not tell me the right time to be there. (Note: they bicker like best friends about what really happened.)
SJ: Was it love at first site?
Jen: Elana just wanted to motivate us to work hard, but it wasn’t love at first sight. You said this before [turning to Elana], you never picked favorites. It was just until I proved that I was going to work hard and was willing to commit myself to this that you put more time and effort into Project Hudak.
Elana: We also spent more time together because of the fact that you were willing to put more time in. …Therefore, by the end of the season you qualified for all the major competitions.
SJ: How long have you been together?
Jen and Elana in sing-song unison: We’ve being together for seven years.
Jen: And nothing to show for it?
Elana: What?
Jen: Just kidding, just kidding. Like no baby or anything. We have a bronze medal from X Games to show for it!
SJ: Both of you spend a lot of time at the Utah Olympic Park splash pool. How has it helped you improve?
Jen: The more time you spend in the air, the more time you spend spinning, it just helps you have a better awareness of where you are in the air, which is basically the most important thing. If you know where you are it doesn’t matter if you are doing a 9 or a 10 or over rotating a 5 or 7 or 9, if you know where you are, you will be able to land. There is not much landing involved with water ramping considering you are landing in water, but getting that feeling and trying to figure out where you are at all times … it’s kind of like a big experiment the whole time.
Elana: Air awareness is the biggest thing, so you can try all different ways to speed up slow down, spin and fix them if they are not going right.
SJ: What is your biggest accomplishment, either in skiing or outside of skiing?
Jen: Overall my biggest accomplishment is that I’m actually still skiing to be honest. My first year out of high school, when I moved out to Utah for summer 2004 and lived in Aspen with Elana for the winter of 2005, I was in the hospital on average once a week. The total tally at the end was seven sets of x-rays, three MRIs, a cat scan and a life flight – in one season. I broke my thumb, I did something funny to my wrist, I had bone contusions at the end of my tibia and femur in my right knee and at the end of my tibia on my left knee, I partially tore my ACL, tore cartilage and meniscus on my right knee, broke my nose, tore the cartilage that holds my lungs together, separated my shoulder, bruised my rotator cuff, and probably had a concussion somewhere in there too.
Elana: And lost all vital signs, and that’s why they life flighted you, which was the kicker.
SJ: What made you want to come back to the sport after that?
Jen: Well I felt like I had a lot of unfinished business. … It’s just isn’t in my character to go half way, which is kind of the reason that I got hurt so much. I didn’t know how to limit myself. I didn’t really know boundaries. I came back because I love to ski, I love to compete, I love half pipe. I love being in the air. I just knew I needed to take a year super mellow and pull myself back a lot. That next year after that was probably harder for me more than the year I got hurt so much. I had to suck up my ego. … [Elana] was supportive. My struggles are her struggles in a way, and my successes are her successes. It’s very much a partnership. She doesn’t like to see me get hurt but at the same time she wants to see me push myself and keep improving.
Elana: You have to calculate a risk. You just don’t go take a risk with somebody else’s skill level or life, but you try to build up to it, a progression. You try to set them up for success and not for failure. You have to accept what you have and let the person push them self to the next level. The skill level that Jen has is tremendously high and she has a tremendously high athletic ability. …. She wants to stay on the top of the game of freeride, so she will have to constantly push herself to stay on the top. From that injuries can occur, and you just try to balance when the right day is and when they are on. … It is a balancing act because you are dealing with someone else’s life, not jus your own. It’s going to hurt them more than me when they crash, and so I take that as a tremendous responsibility.
SJ: What are your goals for this upcoming season?
Jen: I want to do 9s and 10s in the pipe. … I’m one for amplitude, I’m one for style. I don’t like spinning for the sake of spinning. If I’m going to do a 9 in a competition, I’m going to do a 9 out of the pipe and one that looks good and preferably one that’s grabbed. I’m a snot. I am, I’m a snot. I think style is so important. I think there are a lot of people that are skilled, and really where the line gets drawn is in regards to style. And the other thing is that I don’t feel rushed. I felt rushed for a while, and it’s really easy to feel pressure from other people to do things. And they don’t mean anything by it. In some ways is supportive and a compliment that they want you to do this stuff because they think you can do it. But you have to know when you are ready to do something and that’s what I learned from getting some many injuries.. You just need to feel it and go with it. I have so much time to do what I want to do. I don’t feel pressured. I want to start doing more slopestyle stuff, I don’t necessarily want to compete in slopestyle but I definitely want to do more of it because people think I can.
Elana: I’m her number one fan. As you all know I run the fan club, the website, the photo albums, I drive the bus, I wrap the ankles, make the knee braces, no I’m just kidding. [Laughs from everyone]. I just think the future is what Jen wants it to be as far as just believing in herself because the skill level is that of anybody else’s or beyond anybody else’s. Her conceptual understanding of looking and twisting compared to any other girls in the sport I think exceeds them, and she has a good natural air sense. So just combing that with self confidence means she could win anything she wants.
SJ: Jen, what have you learned from Elana?
Jen: I’ve learned many life skills from Elana.
Elana: Not cooking.
Jen: No not cooking. I’ve learned how to get out of speeding tickets.
Elana: You learn how to be nice to people without expecting anything and then you end of up getting something in the end. … I’m just nice and I don’t get a ticket.
Jen: I’ve learned a lot from Elana, just from hearing her past stories.
Elana: There is love here.
Jen: We’re a lot alike, too.
SJ: What are your pet peeves?
Jen: I don’t like when people don’t put my silverware in the drawer properly.
Elana: Jen is a little bit …
Jen: … I’m a little OCD. I work at Wild Oats. I’m the front of store supervisor. I have compulsions with certain things like bagging people’s groceries. And if somebody bags somebody’s groceries and I come over to help them finish, and it’s bad, I have to re-bag and re-do it and reorganize it. I’m like really really anal. Everything is stacked perfectly. Oh, it’s intense. Sometimes I turn red because I have to re-bag someone’s groceries and they want to leave and I am so slow because I forget that I have to bag their groceries. It’s literally a compulsion.
SJ: Does OCD carry over to skiing?
Elana: It makes her a little bit stubborn at times. Not in a bad way, but she’s determined to get certain things. … So sometimes it can lead to frustration, which can impede progress. Eventually we get there. It never stops her from the goal. The OCD can make her succeed.
SJ: What will you be doing in New Zealand in August/September?
Jen: Ski a lot. I might never come back from New Zealand, except for when it’s winter here.
Elana: Training in the summer should just be a more relaxed environment so you can learn without pressure. This trip just happens to have two competitions at the end, so sometimes I think that’s good because you have something to work towards. You have a goal in the end. It kind of keeps you focused so you don’t waste your days just skiing around. … I think we’re going to find a balance down there.
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